{"id":1603,"date":"2016-01-29T09:39:31","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T09:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/music\/?p=1603"},"modified":"2016-01-29T09:39:31","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T09:39:31","slug":"and-so-it-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/music\/2016\/01\/29\/and-so-it-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"And so it begins…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catherine Pope, Professor of Medical Sociology, tells us about her\u00a0experiences with\u00a0the University’s community choir:<\/em><\/p>\n

January 2016. And so it begins\u2026 a cheery email entitled \u2018Hello ALL\u2019 from the music-community-choir email list, but actually from Harvey Brough our esteemed and energetic Turner Sims Professor of Music. The email says that the University of Southampton Voices (USV<\/a> for those fond of acronyms) will start rehearsing again in the Turner Sims, Highfield on Wednesday 27th<\/sup> January 2016 \u201cat the normal time – 1 10 pm – 1 50 pm.\u00a0Then all subsequent Wednesdays\u201d.<\/p>\n

So far so good.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve watched X-Factor, or Gareth Malone<\/a>\u2019s BBC choir series, so we know that community choirs are part of a ‘great choral tradition.’ This is a chance to join in and ’embrace the music’ with a bunch of likeminded folk from around the university – academics, administrators, students and scholars. And hey it’s only 40 minutes at lunch-time. I used to like singing at primary school….It looks like fun. …What harm could it do to go along? At the very least it’s a chance to see inside of the Turner Sims Concert Hall<\/a>….? I could just go along and see if I don’t like it I could just stop…?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how it starts.<\/p>\n

Take it from me if you come along you\u2019ll be hooked. Even the bit in the email that says<\/p>\n

“We will present a concert of \u2018A Hum about Mine Ears\u2019 by Clara Sanabras on May 7th at St Michael’s, Bugle Street.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a new composition, based on the Tempest by William\u00a0Shakespeare.” \u2026.[Oh yeah, just a little piece that Harvey will also be taking to the Barbican with the famous Britten Sinfonia<\/a>\u2026!]<\/p>\n

That won\u2019t put you off.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve been sucked in to the USV you won\u2019t be phased by that at all.<\/p>\n

A CONCERT.<\/p>\n

SUPPORTING PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS.<\/p>\n

\u2026yep, we can do that in May. No problem.<\/p>\n

\"USV<\/a>
Harvey Brough with Ben Okafor in rehearsal\u00a0for Songs in the Theme of Love.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The thing is Harvey gets us to do it. He displays all the characteristics of a great teacher –\u00a0\u00a0 patience, expertise, enthusiasm and faith – he believes we can do it and we do. The USV is open to all – trained and untrained singers, those who can, and cannot read music, and those who believe that they cannot sing. (It helps that a few of the music students join in and we do have some secret talent in our midst including an outstanding Soprano soloist). The last outing for USV was in November 2015. Entitled \u2018Songs in the Theme of Love\u2019<\/a> this was billed as \u201can evening of soulful and vibrant music\u201d with Nigerian born singer-songwriter Ben Okafor<\/a> and Liane Carroll<\/a>, one of the UK\u2019s finest jazz singers, and \u2018our\u2019 band of amazing musicians: Mike Outram (guitar), Joe Nurse (keyboards), Andy Hamill (bass) and Adam Skinner (drums). If you missed it, you missed an amazing gig. It is astonishing that over a few weeks of lunchtime rehearsals USV can conquer a diverse set of compositions that run the range of jazz, gospel, folk, reggae, spiritual and choral styles (and which consist of some of the most fiendish chord arrangements Harvey can dream up). Songs in the Theme of Love included Okafor\u2019s heartrending \u2018She Said She Said\u201d his song based on a meeting a migrant mother and her child, and \u2018Man of Sorrows\u2019 with its soaring refrain. Okafor\u2019s spiritually infused songs segued perfectly into the second half which included Liane Carroll\u2019s soulful rendition of \u2018Memphis in June\u2019 (she can scat to send shivers down your spine) and a version of \u2018Dublin Morning\u2019 that evoked late nights, early mornings, piano bars, and emotion – a perfect Song on the Theme of Love.<\/p>\n

If you made a new year\u2019s resolution to try something new, or if you just want to exercise your lungs on a Wednesday lunchtime, come along and find out what USV is all about. I\u2019ll look forward to seeing you at our next big show\u2026<\/p>\n

Catherine Pope<\/p>\n

Health Sciences and USV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catherine Pope, Professor of Medical Sociology, tells us about her\u00a0experiences with\u00a0the University’s community choir: January 2016. And so it begins\u2026 a cheery email entitled \u2018Hello ALL\u2019 from the music-community-choir email list, but actually from Harvey Brough our esteemed and energetic Turner Sims Professor of Music. The email says that the University of Southampton Voices (USV for those fond of acronyms) …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57407,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[207],"tags":[643654,1015356,612453,643666],"class_list":["post-1603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-performance","tag-harvey-brough","tag-st-michaels-church","tag-turner-sims","tag-university-of-southampton-voices","column","threecol"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3YgXZ-pR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1603"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1607,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603\/revisions\/1607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}